Event
RTRI Hosts the 11th SNCF-RTRI Collaborative Research Seminar
November 26, 2024
Railway Technical Research Institute
The Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI) invited the French National Railways (SNCF) to its headquarters and hosted the 11th SNCF-RTRI Collaborative Research Seminar for three days, from November 6 to 8, 2024.
RTRI and SNCF signed an agreement on joint research in 1995. Since then, they have been working collaboratively on research covering a wide range of technical fields and exchanging information. The collaborative research seminar is held biennially to manage collaborative research projects, report on the results of the previous seminar to the present day, and formulate future plans. This was the first face-to-face seminar in six years since the 8th seminar in 2018.
Eight people from SNCF, including Mrs. Carole Desnost, Chief Technical Officer, and 40 people from RTRI, including Dr. Ikuo Watanabe, President, participated in this seminar.
At this seminar, a management meeting and presentation meetings were held, and it was agreed that RTRI and SNCF would continue to work closely together to promote collaborative research, and that the next seminar would be held in France in 2026.
Mr. Valéry Versailles (right), Director, Head of Department, Railway Physics Innovation & Research, SNCF, and Dr. Yoshitaka Murono (left), General Director, Research and Development Promotion Division, RTRI, after signing the Seminar Minutes, which recorded the agreed details
Management Meeting on November 6
Executives and managers from both organizations participated. RTRI introduced “R&D Against Rainfall Disasters for Railways”, and SNCF introduced “Energy and Carbon-Free Railways.” The two organizations shared the issues that need to be solved, for example, strengthening resilience against natural disasters, decarbonizing, and saving energy. They confirmed that they would continue to strengthen mutual cooperation to address these issues. In particular, they identified countermeasures against high winds as common issues and decided to exchange opinions in the next focus group discussions.
Management Meeting
Collaborative Research Seminar Final Reports and Technical Discussions on November 7
Researchers from both organizations engaged in lively discussions, presenting the results of three collaborative research projects and seven information exchange projects carried out between 2022 and 2024, as well as the plans for two collaborative research projects and seven information exchange projects to be carried out over the next two years from 2024.
Seminar Participants
* You can see all the photos and figures in the PDF file above.